The present invention relates to methods and systems for making production plans, and more particularly, to a method and a system for making a production plan, in which a production plan can be constructed in instant response to a request from a client, so as to shorten the production cycle and improve the production efficiency.
A manufacturer such as a computer manufacturer generally employs two types of production processes, including a first production process and a second production process. In the first production process, according to products predicted to be required for a client recently and situations of production rate and material availability, a production plan is pre-made and performed for manufacturing the products, and then the products are packaged and finally processed to be readily delivered to the client in response to an actual request from the client. In the second production process, the products are manufactured directly based on the client""s request, and are all packaged in an identical manner to be delivered to the client.
In the use of the first production process for product manufacture, as the production plan is constructed according to practical requirements, it therefore improves the flexibility in production and easiness for product management. For manufacturing products e.g. a computer peripheral device such as hard disk, CD-ROM or motherboard, or CPU, that is, the products are manufactured in a manner of more categories and less quantity, the products are packaged and exported according to the categories thereof, and thus production difficulty is reduced. However, this generates drawbacks such as a prolonged production cycle and excess in manufactured products, semi-manufactured products or raw materials, as well as worse flexibility in response to price reduction for parts (e.g. CPU price reduction) and occurrence of repetition in manufacture. Furthermore, in the case of employing the second production process, since products are manufactured as requested by the client in a manner of less categories and more quantity, conditions of product exportation and product manufacture are easily controlled and monitored, and also the production cycle and responding time to the occurrence of repetition in manufacture are both reduced. However, as the situation of production rate is not pre-estimated, complexity in the production process is increased, which makes the product management more difficult and flexibility for adjusting human resources deteriorated.
In addition, in the foregoing two production processes, after the products are completely manufactured, as an optimal product logistic system is not available for stocking and exporting the manufactured products, product controlling and management can not be easily achieved.
Therefore, it is desired to solve the above problems, for effectively monitoring the production process and controlling product exportation, so as to allow sale, purchase and manufacture departments to realize information relating to the production process and accordingly improve the production efficiency.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method and a system for making a production plan, for allowing a request from a client to be analyzed in real time, and the production plan to be constructed in response to manufactured or semi-manufactured products at a production line, so as to implement production according to the production plan and allow a production condition to be effectively controlled and managed. Moreover, the method and system for making a production plan allow a production cycle and human resources to be effectively controlled and adjusted respectively, so that sale, purchase and manufacture departments can realize the latest production and export conditions according to the production plan. In addition, in the use of the method and system for making a production plan, the manufactured products can be effectively controlled in stock and exportation.
In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives, the present invention proposes a method and a system for making a production plan. The method for making a production plan is used for connecting a manufacturer to the system for making a production plan through a network, wherein the system constructs a production plan according to a product request from a client for allowing the manufacturer to acquire latest conditions in product manufacture and exportation, and includes a stock database for storing raw material data, a request database for storing data relating to the product request from the client, a production plan database for storing data relating to the production plan, and an export database for storing data relating to the product exportation.
The method for making a production plan comprising the steps of: (1) analyzing via the system for making a production plan product items possibly requested from the client, so as to allow a purchase unit of the manufacturer to purchase in advance raw materials for the product items according to the raw material data stored in the stock database; (2) determining via the system for making a production plan if a product request is received from the client, wherein if the product request is received, then step (3) is followed; if no product request is received, then the step (2) is followed; (3) determining via the system for making a production plan if a constructed production plan with incomplete product manufacture is present in the product plan database, wherein if it is, then step (4) is followed; or else, product items in the received product request are analyzed and assigned with respective model categories, which are each provided with an identification number corresponding to a product request containing the model category and are used for constructing a production plan to be stored in the production plan database; and then performing step (9); (4) analyzing via the system for making a production plan product delivery time and model categories for products requested by the client in the constructed production plan in the production plan database, and determining if any model category in the constructed production plan is identical to that in the received product request, wherein if at least one model category is identical, then step (5) is followed, or else step (6) is followed; (5) determining via the system for making a production plan if necessary to rapidly complete product manufacture for the received product request, wherein if the rapid product manufacture is necessary, then step (7) if followed, or else step (8) is followed; (6) providing via the system for making a production plan the model categories of the product items in the received product request with respective identification numbers corresponding to product request containing the model categories, and constructing a new production plan according to the model categories and the product delivery time, so as to store the new production plan in the production plan database; and then performing step (9); (7) incorporating via the system for making a production plan the identical model category in the constructed production plan with that in the received product request, so as to change product quantity of the model category in the pre-constructed production plan, and to record a corresponding identification number in the model category; and then performing step (9); (8) adjusting flexibly via the system for making a production plan an identification number of the identical product category in the constructed production plan for assigning the adjusted identification number to the received product request, so as to construct a new production plan and correct the constructed production plan; and then performing step (9); (9) reading the production plan stored in the production plan database via a manufacture unit of the manufacturer for performing a process for manufacturing products, and storing data relating to the process in the production plan database; (10) determining via the system for making a production plan if a message for completing the manufacturing process is received from the manufacture unit, wherein if the message is received, then step (11) is followed; if no message is received, then the step (10) is followed; and (11) searching for corresponding product requests in the production plan database via the system for making a production plan according to identification numbers of the manufactured products, and processing the products for assemblage, packaging and exportation according to the corresponding product requests.
The system for making a production plan is used for constructing a production plan according to a product request from a client for allowing the manufacturer to acquire latest conditions in product manufacture and exportation, wherein each product item is pre-assigned with a model category, so as to determine model categories for product items in the product request and provide each of the model categories in the product request with an identification number.
The system for making a production plan comprises: a stock database for storing raw material data, which are used for a purchase unit of the manufacturer to determine if to purchase in advance raw materials for subsequent use in product manufacture; a request database for storing data relating to the product request from the client, wherein the product request is provided with an unique order number; a production plan database for storing data relating to the production plan, wherein the production plan allows a manufacture unit and a sale unit of the manufacturer to acquire latest conditions in manufacture, and has model categories each including a plurality of identification numbers, which each is used to identify a product request to which the model category belongs and corresponds to the order number of the belonged product request; a planning module for constructing a new production plan according to a newly stored product request in the request database, wherein model categories are determined for product items in the newly stored product request so as to assign each of the model categories with an unique identification number corresponding to a product request containing the model category; it is determined if a constructed production plan with incomplete product manufacture is present in the production plan database, if no constructed production plan is present, a new production plan is constructed according to the newly stored product request, if the constructed production plan is present, the constructed production plan is compared with the newly stored product request for an identical model category, if no identical model category is present, the planning module constructs a new production plan according to the model categories of the product items in the newly stored product request and stores the production plan in the production plan database; if the identical model category is present, the planning module determines if necessary to rapidly complete product manufacture for the newly stored product request, if the rapid product manufacture is necessary, the planning module flexibly adjusts an identification number of the identical model category in the constructed production plan and assigns the adjusted identification number to the newly stored product request, so as to construct a new production plan and correct the constructed production plan; if the rapid product manufacture is not necessary for the newly stored product request, the planning module incorporates the identical model category in the constructed production plan with that in the newly stored product request, so as to change product quantity for the model category in the constructed production plan and record a new identification number in the model category as well as store the changed production plan in the production plan database; an integrating module for determining conditions in manufacture according to production plans in the production plan database, wherein if the manufacture unit transfers a message for completely manufacturing products, the integrating module searches corresponding order numbers of product requests according to identification numbers for the manufactured products, so as to process the manufactured products for assemblage, packaging and exportation according to the product requests; and an export database for storing data relating to a product export sheet, which is constructed by integrating the identification numbers corresponding to the order numbers of the product requests from the integrating module.